LOONA
LOONA (Hangul: 이달의 소녀), stylized as LOOΠΔ, is a South Korean girl group created by BlockBerryCreative. The group is composed of 12 members: HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul, YeoJin, ViVi, Kim Lip, JinSoul, Choerry, Yves, Chuu, Go Won and Olivia Hye; and three sub-units: LOOΠΔ 1/3, ODD EYE CIRCLE, and yyxy. From October, 2016 until June, 2018, each member of the group was revealed along with a single album and a music video for the title track. The complete group debuted on August 19, 2018 at their concert LOONAbirth with the release of + + on August 20, 2018. Name The group's Korean name is Yi-dal-ie So-nyuh (Korean: 이달의 소녀; RR: Idalui Sonyeo) from the Sino-Korean root meaning "Girl of the Month"; they are also known as LOONA, often stylized as LOOΠΔ, which is their official English and international name. The name LOONA has been chosen because it roughly contains and resembles the syllabic initials of their Korean name, after a few manipulations (the introduction to each Loona music video exemplifies this). Since their name consists of Chinese roots, the group's name is similar in Chinese and Japanese: in Japan the group's name is pronounced as Kongetsu no Shōjo (Japanese: 今月の少女), and in Mandarin Chinese as Běnyuè Shàonǚ (Chinese: 本月少女). History '2014-2016: Creation' Before the selection of the members, LOONA's concept was first devised by their A&R Director, Jaden Jeong. Prior to being introduced to Polaris Entertainment, BlockBerryCreative's sister company, Jaden Jeong already had the "Girl of The Month" Project planned. Despite already working with numerous other agencies, he waited for a company that had the will to properly bring the project "into reality". His goal with LOONA's project was not just to have a complete group, but also to have an identity and fandom.Jaden Jeong Interview (Korean) In 2014, plans were made to establish a new agency consisting of a "dream team" in the industry. This agency would later become BlockBerryCreative in early 2016.Polaris CEO Lee Jong Myung Interview (Korean) In order to select the members of LOONA, trainees were split into groups based on skill level.Debut System (Korean) Each time a new member would be chosen, each group would send a representative that would compete for the spot. These representatives would be judged on group evaluations, including singing and a choreography test.LOONA TV #40 Additionally, the trainee's character and personality were also considered. After each competition, the girls were ranked. The 1st girl would become a member while the 2nd and 3rd could choose different teams to join.Selection System Explained In an interview with the CEO of Polaris Entertainment, released on August 24, 2018, it was revealed that the entire pre-debut project cost around $10,000,000. Due to interest from large organization, the project was able to receive a large amount of money through sponsors from Korea, Japan, and the United States. '2016: Pre-debut' On September 26, 2016, the first teaser of member HeeJin was released across multiple social media platforms including Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Teasers for "HeeJin" were released until October 5, when the music video for "ViViD" was released. On October 28, the second member, HyunJin was revealed in a similar manner. Teasers for "HyunJin" included HeeJin for their duet titled "I'll Be There" and solo teasers for HyunJin were released for her song "Around You". Her solo album, "HyunJin" was released on November 17. On December 8, more than a month later, member HaSeul continued the pattern by having teasers of her and her two fellow members. Her solo album, "HaSeul" was released on December 15, including her solo "Let Me In" and a Christmas themed trio named "The Carol". '2017: Pre-debut, LOOΠΔ 1/3, and ODD EYE CIRCLE' On January 4, YeoJin was revealed as the fourth member. Her solo album, "YeoJin" was released on January 16, including her solo song "Kiss Later", HeeJin and HyunJin's duet "My Sunday", and HaSeul and YeoJin's duet "My Melody". On February 5, it was announced LOONA would have a new project. The project would be a sub-unit called LOONA 1/3 composed of three current members (HeeJin, HyunJin, HaSeul, or YeoJin) and one new unrevealed member. On February 12, ViVi was revealed to be the new member joining the unit. On February 14 (Valentines Day), an Instagram-styled teaser for LOONA 1/3's "Valentine Girl" was released. It revealed that HeeJin, HyunJin, and HaSeul would be the three other members of the unit. When translated, "Valentine Girl"'s Korean name, "3월을 기다려", means "wait for March". This would later be found to hint at LOONA 1/3's debut in March. On February 28, the first teaser for their debut was released. Much later on March 10, the album preview for their mini-album Love & Live was released. On March 13, the album was released with a music video for the title track, "Love&Live" Along with LOOΠΔ's first TV promotions that were held exclusively on SBS' Inkigayo. On April 5, ViVi was confirmed as the "April Girl". On April 16, it was announced that when the music video for "Everyday I Love You (feat. HaSeul)" reached 300K views on YouTube, the music video for "Everyday I Need You" featuring unrevealed member JinSoul would be released. One day later, her single, "ViVi", was released on April 17, including "Everyday I Love You (feat. HaSeul)" and "Everyday I Need You (feat. JinSoul)". On April 20, through LOONA TV 99, it was announced that LOONA would open a VLive channel and hold LOONA TV 100 live featuring all five revealed members. On April 23, LOOΠΔ 1/3's repackaged mini-album, Love & Evil, was revealed with teasers of the members and a teaser for "Love & Evil". Love & Evil was then released on April 27 with two stages on Inkigayo. In the music video description for "Sonatine", LOONA's storyline titled the "LOOΠΔVERSE" was introduced. The description also revealed that "The girls of May, June, and July will be of another unit." On May 13, the music video for "Everyday I Need You" was finally released featuring a one second clip of unrevealed member JinSoul. On May 15, Kim Lip was revealed as the sixth member. Her single "Kim Lip" was released on May 23, with her solos "Eclipse" and "Twilight". On June 13, JinSoul was revealed as the seventh member. On June 20, LOONA's web drama Woomanna was announced. On June 26, JinSoul's single "JinSoul" was released, including her solo "Singing in the Rain" and her duet with Kim Lip, "Love Letter". On July 7, LOOΠΔ 1/3's "Rain 51Db" music video was released. On July 10, a special music video for JinSoul's "Singing in the Rain" was released featuring member HeeJin exclusively on V Live. On July 12, Choerry was revealed as the eighth member. On July 28, "Choerry" was released, featuring Choerry's solo, "Love Cherry Motion" and a duet titled "Puzzle" with fellow member JinSoul. On August 30, BlockBerryCreative revealed a teaser for the second sub-unit of LOOΠΔ, ODD EYE CIRCLE, which contains members Kim Lip, JinSoul and Choerry. On September 19, the preview teaser for the lead single of an album by ODD EYE CIRCLE was released. The day after, the album title was revealed in a preview as Mix & Match. The album was released on September 21 along with a music video release for the title track, "Girl Front". The music video description for "Girl Front" revealed that LOONA would hold a concert once all three units debuted. During that time, members HeeJin, HyunJin, and HaSeul were announced to participate in the survival show Mix Nine. On October 18, it was an announced a repackage album titled "Max & Match" would be released. On October 23, the promised "LOONATIC (English Version)" was released across international platforms. On October 31, Max & Match was released along with a music video for the title track, "Sweet Crazy Love". On November 14, Yves was revealed as the ninth member. Different from the previous teasers of other members, Yves' featured a reversed link, "dlrowehtanool.com" instead of the normal "loonatheworld.com". The link would lead to a website that would play a video of a mobius strip rotating LOONA's music video logo. The video later changed to a spinning DNA helix titled "Eden" during one of the upcoming member's reveals. This new video would tease the concept of the third sub-unit. November 28, "Yves" was released with her solos "new" and "D-1". On December 13, "The Carol 2.0" was released featuring ViVi, Choerry, and Yves under the transverse unit "ViRryVes" (pronounced as "believe"). On December 14, Chuu was revealed as the tenth member. On December 28, "Chuu" was released including her solo "Heart Attack" and Yves and Chuu's duet "Girl's Talk". Chuu's "Heart Attack" quickly gained attention from many news outlets for its inclusion of LGBT themes in its music video. '2018: Pre-debut, yyxy, fanclub name, debut' On January 15, Go Won was revealed as the eleventh member. On January 30, "Go Won" was released including her solo "One & Only" and Chuu and Go Won's duet "See Saw" featuring Kim Lip. On March 17, Olivia Hye was revealed as the twelfth member. On March 30, "Olivia Hye" was released including her solo "Egoist" featuring JinSoul and Olivia Hye's duet with Go Won "Rosy" featuring HeeJin. On April 26, BlockBerryCreative revealed a teaser for the third and final sub-unit of LOOΠΔ, yyxy, which contains the last four members Yves, Chuu, Go Won and Olivia Hye. On May 4, it was announced LOONA would be partnering with Live Nation to help manage their live events."이달의 소녀, 마돈나 공연기획사와 손잡고 글로벌 그룹 도약" (Live Nations Article) On May 10, and the following days, teasers for beauty&thebeat were released including, group and individual photos, and images that revealed each track. The teaser for "love4eva" revealed that the Canadian musician Grimes would be featured in the track. On May 30, the album was released along with a music video for the title track, "love4eva". On June 2, yyxy held their debut stage at "LOOΠΔ Premier Greeting: Line & Up", performing "love4eva" and "frozen". On June 10, the teaser titled "go into Orbit" was released announcing LOONA would hold its debut concert on August 19, 2018. On June 15, recruitment for LOONA's first official fan club opened. It was also announced that the official fan club name would be revealed on July 6. A day later on June 16, it was announced that LOOΠΔ Cinema Theory: Up & Line would be held again, but in Busan, South Korea. On July 6, the day of the pledged fan club name announcement, a contest was held. The winner would be chosen from a pool of people who could correctly guess the fan club name. They would receive all 12 signed solo albums. However, due to the contest, the reveal was postponed to July 10. On July 7, Cinema Theory was held in Busan. The attendees were joined by HeeJin, HyunJin, and ViVi. On July 10, the fan club name, "Orbit", was announced through a video. On July 18, the debut concert was revealed to be named LOONAbirth. On July 28, the teaser video "++" was released. On July 30, it was announced that the lead single "favOriTe" would be released on August 7. On August 1, the teaser for "favOriTe" was released. On August 7, the music video for "favOriTe" was released. The song is said to show off LOONA's girl crush-ish charm and signature sound as a complete group with all twelve members. Beginning on August 8 and up until August 14, yearbook-like teaser photos titles "++" were released every 12 hours for each of the members. On August 14, it was formally announced that + + would be LOONA's debut mini-album. On August 16, the teaser for the title track "Hi High" was released. On August 19, they held their debut concert LOONAbirth and performed the songs from + + for the first time. At 4:00pm (KST), the next day, they held their debut showcase at Blue Square Hall. An hour later, the album was released, along with the music video for "Hi High". On August 23, LOONA held their debut stage at M Countdown with a shortened version of "favOriTe" and then "Hi High". On September 2, yyxy performed "frozen" and "love4eva" at the 2018 Incheon Airport Sky Festival. On September 3, it was announced a "Hi High (Original version)" Choreography MV would be released on September 5 midnight (KST) to celebrate 15,000,000 views for "Hi High". On October 13, LOONA concluded promotions for + + with a goodbye stage on SBS' Inkigayo. The next day on October 14, a reversed teaser for X X was released. That same day, it was announced more copies of + + would be printed due to all 50,000 first-press copies being sold."LOOΠΔ sells out all 50,000 first-press copies of debut album" On October 16, a teaser was released for LOONA Studio, an event that would take place from November 23-25 at Hongdae MUV Hall in Seoul. '2019: First comeback' On January 1, a teaser titled "X1X" was released, teasing their next comeback. Two days later, it was announced the group will hold a concert, LOONAVERSE Concert, on February 16-17 to coincide with the new album, X X. As hinted at the end of the "X1X" teaser with four numbers (1, 11, 21, 31), LOONA released a teasers on the 11, 21, and 31 of January. On February 16 and 17, LOONA held their concert, LOONAVERSE Concert. On February 19, the music video for "Butterfly" was released, coinciding with the release of X X. The X X promotional period is set to last six weeks. On February 19, it was revealed that all four versions of the album had sold out entirely and was under additional printing; release for the Normal A versions of the album were postponed to February 21, and the Normal B and Limited A & B versions of the album were postponed to February 26.https://twitter.com/caskerbox/status/1097703811320373249 On February 25, Orbits broke the previous record for number of pre-votes for The Show by gathering a total of 3,677,262 votes.https://twitter.com/caskerbox/status/1099897453174767617 It was also revealed that the Normal B and Limited A & B versions would be postponed again to March 6thhttps://twitter.com/crushonchuu/status/1099869377560788992, but a later update after consulting with the new distributor, Kakao M, revealed that Limited A & B would stop production entirely.https://twitter.com/caskerbox/status/1100041140257148929 Kakao M underestimated album sales, thus causing the albums to be sold out very quickly. They also uploaded the album to a completely new spotify account which made it difficult for fans to find the album. Those issues reduce their chances of winning on music shows since it depends on their albums sold, streams etc. Awards and Nominations Artistry Members *Only the members of ODD EYE CIRCLE have official colors. The other members refer to the color of their album. Beside the leaders of the sub-units, LOONA's members do not have fixed positions. LOONA's members positions In fact, it change at every comeback. Sub-units YeoJin is the only member that isn't part of a sub-unit, but a "solo sub-unit". It has been stated that she represents the slash in 1/3. Discography Upcoming albums * LOONA the Ballad (planned for May 2019) * Japanese Debut Album (planned for Summer 2019) * [#] 'Korean' Mini albums * Love & Live (2017) * Mix & Match (2017) * Beauty&thebeat (2018) * [+ +] (2018) Repackage albums * Love & Evil (2017) * Max & Match (2017) * [X X] (2019) Single albums * "HeeJin" (2016) * "HyunJin" (2016) * "HaSeul" (2016) * "YeoJin" (2017) * "ViVi" (2017) * "Kim Lip" (2017) * "JinSoul" (2017) * "Choerry" (2017) * "Yves" (2017) * "Chuu" (2017) * "Go Won" (2018) * "Olivia Hye" (2018) Digital singles * "The Carol 2.0" (2017) * "favOriTe" (2018) Other * "Orbit 1.0" (2018) 'English' Digital Singles * "LOONATIC (English Version)" (2017) Events Concerts * LOONAbirth (2018) * LOONAVERSE Concert (2019) Other * LOOΠΔ x Study Group (2018) * LOOΠΔ Cinema Theory: Up & Line (2018) * LOOΠΔ Premier Greeting: Line & Up (2018) * LOONA Studio (2018) Filmography Reality shows * LOONA TV (2016–present) Web dramas * Woomanna (우만나) (2017-) Endorsements * InnisFree (LOONA 1/3 only) (2017) * Hanyul (HeeJin only) (2017) * Law of Creation (HeeJin through Kim Lip only) (2017) * Avajar (HeeJin (model) and HyunJin only) (2018) * MY LIVE (YeoJin only) (2018) * LG Q7/8 (HeeJin only) (2018) * Nature Republic (2018) * Lotte Department Store Mobile Application (2018) * Snack World Versus (HeeJin, ViVi, Kim Lip, Choerry only) (2018) * Lotte Hi-Mart (HeeJin only) (2019) Trivia * Their group name is created from a rearrangement of the first constants of the hangul that spells out their name. In other words, ㅇㄷㅇㅅㄴ is rearranged to ㄴㅇㅇㄷㅅ, which then becomes LOOΠΔ. * The first five members traveled across the world for their solo and album promotions. ** The locations included Paris, Tokyo, Iceland, London, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Prague. * For the release of LOONA TV #100, LOONA TV #99 was in the form of a teaser, introducing LOOΠΔ's V Live account where they did #100 live. * Revealed through social media, the last 4 spots in LOOΠΔ were still being chosen from a pool of 50 trainees under the name of "LOOΠΔTIOΠ". Later disclosed in Kim Lip's CeCi China interview, the remaining four members were selected and confirmed in December, 2017. * Part of LOOΠΔ's story is how the group "lives" in a universe titled the "LOOΠΔVERSE". * On July 10, 2018, LOONA's fan club name was revealed to be 오빛 (Orbit). * Songs from "Girl of the Month" project were filtered through ~1000 songs per album. Official links * Website * Facebook * Fancafe * Instagram * Twitter * YouTube * V Live Gallery References Navigation pt-br: Category:LOONA